the evils of ~cortisol~ becoming a hot topic in the pop-(pseudo)science / wellness grifter sphere is both fascinating and irritating to me bc yes, there is a worthwhile conversation to be had about the physiological effects of long term stress (including elevated cortisol levels) which can be deadly and also trigger the onset of various chronic diseases, including those usually and erroneously blamed on weight. stress is indeed bad for you! cortisol itself is not, and the idea that you should focus on personally reducing one particular hormone level rather than addressing structural sources of debilitating and immiserating stress at the societal level (such as, idk, poverty and racism) seems like yet another instance in which one particular word becomes a clichéd stand-in that reduces a thorny and societal issue to a personalized and medicalized symptom.
and then the part that's sort of funny to me though is that while reducing stress would be good for us all, and ultimately requires societal transformations and material shifts in shitty life circumstances that no influencer can sell you, you do not actually want to drastically reduce or eliminate cortisol itself. I am part of a fun little subgroup whose bodies just did that anyway and it's called 'your adrenal glands stop working and you cannot produce cortisol (or aldosterone)' aka addison's disease, which can kill you. so I have to take replacement medications for that forever. bc actually having no or too low cortisol is not good and does not make you un-stressed lol
